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Sunday, January 6, 2013

Building A Quiet Tumbling Fortress

Several artisan friends in a jewelry group I'm a member of raising a concern about tumbler may be too loud for daily use in their thin walled apartments. It got me thinking.. I have a single barrel durabull tumbler with a plastic barrel to tumble my jewelry that is not quiet by any means but it's also not obnoxiously loud. The rhythmical swish swish sound does not bothering me or any other family members in my house although I usually have the bathroom door closed, where the tumbler is, if I want to watch TV that's about 10 ft away from the tumbler so I can listen to the show better.

I visited Menards today and found this set of 4 of colorful puzzle foam mat for $7.99. Each is 18" x 18". My tumbler is currently housed inside a cube organizer inside my bathroom. I measured out the inside dimension of the cube organizer and cut my foam to fit as a door. The photos below will explain the steps better.

The steps:
1. I measured my foam mat and drew the guide lines using a sharpie at the back of the mat. I combined 2 colors for a little style and function that will be explained on step 3.

2. I cut the foam and removed the "ears" at the bottom of the puzzle so every side will be straight. I did this on top of a cutting mat to protect my floor.

3. I separated the puzzle and cut a little piece of one of the "ears" of the green mat that's big enough for my finger to get in. This is so my finger can pull out this door as it will be very snug fit to the cube.

4. I also cut a solid piece of foam of the same size to line the back of my cube as my organizer doesn't have any backing. I snipped a little section on the corner so my cable can get through. I also cut a mat for my tumbler to rest on. You can sorta see it on the picture, the backing foam is blue.

5. With 3 sides covered in foam, my tumbler is pretty quiet now! WAAAAY quieter than it's without any sound blocker. I usually hear the sound of tumbling very clearly from 10 ft away. Now, it's very very faint you have to stop the music to hear it.

Alternative:
If your tumbler isn't conveniently stored inside a cube organizer like mine, you can make a sound blocker/fortress for your tumbler by gluing 4 pieces of solid foam together to form a cube of the size of your tumbler, with one of the corner snipped off for cable to get through. Cover your tumbler while it's running with your homemade foam cube.

I bet it will be very quiet, quite possibly quieter than mine as I have 2 sides with no foam walls. I spent only $4 to build this. the other 2 puzzle foam mats are untouched.